Advice Needed For Hugelkultur Raised Beds

Hi all,

Just new to the forum and have a couple of questions about the hugelkultur raised beds I'm doing if anyone could be kind enough to answer them for me? I'm starting growing veg, fruit and herbs for the first time this year so am trying to make sure I get them done right to avoid any issues.

I have them filled with rotting hawthorn logs I had lying about that came down in a bad storm a few years ago. I'd read something about making sure there is no ivy remnants on the logs as it will take over the beds and ruin them, which I didn't realise until I had them all in. There were some of the larger logs that had some ivy just growing around them but i took it all off before putting them in. I was fairly meticulous with removing it but i just can't be fully sure if any tiny roots of it remained in the logs as there was moss on them too so I'm not sure what is what between both.

I'm on a tight budget and still have all my soil and compost etc to buy, so I'm wondering will it be ok to use the logs I took the ivy off or is there a way I could make sure any remaining tiny strands of roots would pose no harm, could I use a blowtorch on them to make sure they won't sprout when i put the soil in?
This is the only wood I have access to so I'm trying to make do with what I have. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I've added some pics of the tiny root strands left on the logs that I'm unsure of if they are from the ivy or not. You can see in one pic there is a dead ivy vine wrapped around a log, but the other ones just have tiny root strands of something and I'm not entirely sure what they're from.

Thanks in advance for any advice provided.

Garry, welcome to Permies!!

And welcome to gardening!  

Where I live here in Montana we don't have an ivy problem.  
If I did, I would let the Boy Scout in me come out and have some fun with a blow torch!!
Seriously, my gut says get rid of the roots, so fire should work.  I just would not burn the wood to much as it will preserve the wood so it will take longer to compost down.

The ivy roots are worth getting rid of yeah, they'll just reshoot and compete with everything you plant. Burning them off or just pulling what you can see should do it. One thing to watch with fresh hugel beds is the wood will pull nitrogen out of the soil as it breaks down, especially in the first year. Chucking some extra compost or well rotted manure on top helps balance that out.

Dennis Barrow wrote:Garry, welcome to Permies!!

And welcome to gardening!  

Where I live here in Montana we don't have an ivy problem.  
If I did, I would let the Boy Scout in me come out and have some fun with a blow torch!!
Seriously, my gut says get rid of the roots, so fire should work.  I just would not burn the wood to much as it will preserve the wood so it will take longer to compost down.

Thank you for the welcome Dennis and many thanks for your reply and advice also, I really appreciate it! Greetings from Ireland mo chara (my friend in Irish)☘️ We have a lot of ivy here so it's hard to find any felled rotting trees that doesn't have it growing around them!

The logs I'm using are mostly well rotted as I didn't want it to take years to compost down, I'll tackle the root strands on them with a blow torch anyway and hopefully that should stop them sprouting when the soil hits them. Most that I can see look dead but some grew inside the bark which made it harder to see them. I had planned to keep the moss on the logs as I had read it helps in a hugelkultur bed but I'll probably have to burn it as well to ensure I've gotten all the ivy strands off it. I was thinking of using old rotten grass cuttings to pack on top of the logs to fill any gaps as I have loads of them from last season and no fresh ones cut yet, would that be a good idea or a bad idea do you think? I'd read about the need for nitrogen so that was my thinking behind using them. Maybe just rotted manure or compost would be better would it?

Joao Winckler wrote:The ivy roots are worth getting rid of yeah, they'll just reshoot and compete with everything you plant. Burning them off or just pulling what you can see should do it. One thing to watch with fresh hugel beds is the wood will pull nitrogen out of the soil as it breaks down, especially in the first year. Chucking some extra compost or well rotted manure on top helps balance that out.

Many thanks for your reply and advice Joao I really appreciate it! I have all the ivy pulled off that I could see apart from the dead ivy on that log you can see in one of my pics, I left it on that one so I could show what I'm dealing with in the pic. It's really those little minature root strands that I'm worried about as I'm not sure if they are tiny ivy roots or if they are from moss, my gut is telling me they are probably from the ivy though! I have all the large parts taken off so maybe I should just take a blowtorch to the small ones just to be on the safe side!

I was thinking of using old rotted grass clippings from last season to put a layer on top of the logs to fill any gaps, as I have loads of them here. Would that be a bad idea? I can get some well rotted manure or compost to put on it instead if need be anyway. Thanks again for your help!